


The Terrible Plan

by Jen425



Series: Influences [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Anakin Skywalker Doesn't Turn to the Dark Side, Anakin Skywalker: Infinite Pain, Anakin doesn't kill the younglings AU, Anakin is an Idiot, Angst, But that doesn't change as much as you'd think, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Heavy Angst, Kinda, M for Mustafar, M/M, Multi, Padmé Amidala Lives, R2-D2 knows all, welcome back to Anakin hates himself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-04-08 14:53:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14107764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/pseuds/Jen425
Summary: Anakin makes the right choice, in his opinion, far too late.And, as usual, he makes a mess with the fallout of his own actions.





	1. The terrible truth

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for my mom. She refuses to forgive Anakin because he killed the younglings, and so I wrote this.

“[/Anakin-Skywalker!/]” cries a familiar droid’s beep, and Anakin spins around.

 

“Artoo!” he says, smiling beneath the mask. He’s almost used to the pain of moving, now. It had been worth it, though, Padme was alive. Sidious may have tried to convince him otherwise, but he’d cut the connection before it could possibly have killed her, “What are you doing here?”

 

Artoo whistles.

 

“[They wanted to wipe C-3PO,]” Artoo beeps, “[I will return to watching Senator-Handmaiden-Queen after I am sure that he is safe. Senator-Handmaiden-Queen, Obi-Wan-Kenobi, and your children are safe, and they are hidden.]”

 

Anakin breaths a sigh of relief, hating the way it sounds through the mask (the way _everything_ sounds through the mask). If his family was safe, then every bit of pain was worth it. If his partners and the… wait…

 

“ _Children?_ ”

 

“[Twins.]”

 

Oh. Huh.

 

Anakin sighs again.

 

“I’ll take care of Threepio,” he says, “Could you… could you help me record a few messages.”

 

“[What do you take me for?]” Artoo beeps, “[Of course.]”

 

_It hadn’t been… easy, but Anakin had done what he had to do, to save even a small bit of what he’d had left._

 

_(He had cut down Jedi that he had fought beside without a second thought, and he hadn’t even blinked.)_

 

 _He was tired, and desperate, and_ he couldn’t _lose her._

 

 _But then, when he’d entered the Council room, and the younglings had looked up at him with such_ hope…

 

 _It was like a switch had flipped, and he’d rushed to get every surviving Jedi at that point out of there, careful not to be seen by the not-his-men (and_ why _hadn’t that made him_ think _?)._

 

 _He thanked every god he knew of that there were some secrets that the Council_ had _deigned to tell him._

 

_“Stay here,” he said to the younglings and Padawans and even a couple of knights that he’d managed to get out of the Temple, “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”_

 

Padme gasps as Artoo’s holoprojector lit, that was… that was _Anakin_. Even scarred, she recognizes him instantly.

 

“...Hi, Angel,” the hologram of her partner says, waving awkwardly, “I guess I have a lot of explaining to do…”

 

 _Anakin smiled as he jumped out of his starfighter, pulling Padme into his arms. She was_ safe _, and she was_ here _, and that would have to be enough. He couldn’t survive losing her or Obi-Wan, even if he didn’t know if_ they _could survive the loss of another either._

 

_But they were stronger than him. He was already lost._

 

 _“Padme…” he whispered like a prayer because it_ was _, and he needed his remaining loves to keep him grounded._

 

_“Ani?” she asked, “Anakin, what’s wrong?”_

 

_Anakin sighed._

 

_“The Chancellor is sending me to Mustafar, to find the remaining Separatists leaders,” he said, “I… please, don’t follow me. The Jedi… the Jedi have turned against the Republic, and I… just remember that everything I do is for the Galaxy… and for you.”_

 

 _Padme looked terrified, and Anakin could only imagine how crazy he must look and sound, but there isn’t_ time.

 

_“But… but what about Obi-Wan? What…”_

 

_Anakin sighed._

 

_“I know that he’ll make the right choice,” he said, “I… Padme, please, just… I love you, Angel.”_

 

_And then he left before any more questions could be asked…_

 

_It was too late for him, but he’d do what he could._

 

Anakin sighs as he watches the ship lift off, taking his droids with it.

 

“Goodbye, Artoo,” he says into the spare comm Artoo had found. Artoo whistles back.

 

“[Goodbye, Skywalker-Vader,]” Artoo chirps back, “[I will protect your family until you can be called Anakin-Skywalker again.]”

 

“Yeah,” Anakin says, “Let’s hope that it’s soon.”

 

_Anakin knew Obi-Wan was on Padme’s ship, knew that he was there to kill him. He also knew that he couldn’t._

 

 _He also knew that he couldn’t tell them the truth in a facility owned by his new_ Master _._

 

 _And, so, he acted out the scene,_ forced _himself to hurt the two people who held his heart. He fought his Master, his best friend, his partner in every way, and he simply_ attacked _Padme, his wonderful Angel._

 

_But he made sure not to do more than he had to. He carefully slowed Padme’s fall, let Obi-Wan make moves that he easily could have avoided just to figure out a way to end this fight with Obi-Wan getting Padme out of there, and nobody dead._

 

_But then he laid on the banks of a river of lava, writhing in pain, and he didn’t care._

 

_“Help me!” He begged, but Obi-Wan just looked at him sadly._

 

_“I love you, Anakin,” his husband said. “But I cannot save you.”_

 

_And then the flames lit, and all he knew was pain…_

 

“…I guess I got my revenge for Rako Hardeen after all,” Anakin says, an Obi-Wan is crying, forcing his shields to be their absolute strongest so as not to wake Luke.

 

“Oh, _Anakin_ ,” he says even though this is only a recording. On the holo, Anakin laughs, a broken thing that leads into a cough.

 

“Obi-Wan, I don’t blame you,” he says, “Not for anything, and… I’m alive, and you’re alive, and Padme’s alive, and our children are alive, and… the Empire will end, I promise. If on that day, you or Padme or both of you still thinks I deserve anything more than a prison cell or a death sentence, than that would be enough for me because I will _always_ love you, and I am _so_ , _so sorry_ for every way that I’ve failed you…”

 

Anakin trails off, then, and another sound that he thinks might be a laugh leaves his dear one’s mouth.

 

“Who am I kidding,” Anakin says, “It’s too late for me… Goodbye, Obi-Wan. Know that I love you even if we had already been failing since we lost her.”

 

Oh… that Anakin could even possibly think that he could stop loving him… that they had ever fallen apart so… oh _Anakin…_

 

_He felt Sidious land, felt his loves leave, felt the fire end, and used his remaining metal arm to pull himself from the flames of Mustafar. He couldn’t even focus his eyes much. Everything hurt more than he could ever imagine and the rain on Coruscant felt like acid on his skin. He felt himself, slowly, getting stronger, like pulling from the calming, subtle presence of…_

 

 _He cut the link with Padme. All of this was done to save her, and he would_ not _be her murderer. The pain returned a hundredfold, and he thought that it would never end._

 

_(Unbeknownst to him, it never would, not completely.)_

 

_The helmet went on, and he let Anakin disappear._

 

Anakin was hesitant to enter the Jedi safe house in his new… form. He doesn’t know why, though, most Jedi grew up with such diversity that he remembers many of his age mates being surprised by the speciesism that filled the Galaxy.

 

“Knight Skywalker,” says one of the other knights he’d rescued, bowing her head, “I hope you have an explanation.”

 

Anakin sighs.

 

“I know,” he says, and, well…

 

He tells them the truth; they deserve to know what’s out there, waiting for them, and what’s in here, talking to them.

 

“If you want to leave, I won’t stop you,” he says, “But, if you stay…

 

“I have plans for a place to keep you safe.”

 

He’s failed enough. It’s time to really do some good.

 

(Nobody leaves. Anakin is pretty sure that it’s from their broken belief in a man that doesn’t exist, but… well, people need heroes to look up to, even if they are bold faced lies.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> made a bit of an edit to the mustafar scene, if any retreaded notices. I liked the cut lines better.


	2. Lost Loves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Obi-Wan and Padme talk about the messages.

“Goodbye, Obi-Wan,” Anakin says and the message is over. It’s dark, and it’s night, and Tatooine is a terrible place, and all Obi-Wan can think is that he wishes all of this could be a nightmare. He wishes that he could wake up back at his and Anakin’s apartment in the Jedi temple, or Padme’s Naboo home or Coruscant apartment, or Satine’s suite in her palace on Mandalore. He wishes that he could go back to a time where Satine was alive and Anakin was whole and he knew where their children were, knew they were all as safe as they could be…

 

But he couldn’t. Satine was dead. Anakin was half-Fallen and broken because Obi-Wan had ever thought him capable of killing younglings, of willingly hurting Padme. There’d been no chance yet to get news of Ahsoka and Korkie on Mandalore.

 

And he’s here, where it all started, here with a child he had no clue how to raise and on one of the most hostile worlds he knew.

 

The holocall from Padme could almost be called a reprieve.

 

“Did he leave you a message as well?” Obi-Wan asks. Padme nods.

 

“Ani…” she says, trailing off because there are really no words to describe what they had just learned. That Anakin had cut something made to keep him alive to save her, that everything on Mustafar, that even their very reason for  _ going _ to that wretched place was an illusion, that Anakin was forced to become like that for  _ them _ , that he somehow thought he deserved it…

 

There had still been many Jedi on the Temple floor killed by lightsabers, and Obi-Wan knew that he couldn’t ever forgive that, but… Anakin had always had this look in his eyes like he’d fought the Galaxy and landed a few good hits… now he just looked like he’d lost.

 

“I know,” Obi-Wan says because that’s all he can, “I know.”

 

“I don’t forgive him,” Padme says suddenly, “Not for what he did before he came to his senses.”

 

Obi-Wan shakes his head.

 

“I don’t think I  _ ever _ can,” he says, “That was our home, and…”

 

He trails off, unsure how that sentence should end. Padme sighs.

 

“But we still love him.”

 

Obi-Wan sighs as well.

 

“I don’t think we could stop,” he says, “This was just a reminder.”

 

He wonders what Satine would think, if she was here. Her and Anakin had always been the most volatile of them, but, at the same time, she’d calmed Anakin like Obi-Wan and Padme both had never quite managed. Their stark differences in life experiences yet surprisingly similar personalities had, at any given moment, always brought out the best and worst of each other.

 

He missed her so much.

 

Satine… she would have been horrified by what Anakin had done, but… at the same time, perhaps she could have stopped him from doing any of it…

 

Or perhaps that was just wishful thinking.

 

“How is Leia?” he finds himself asking. He hasn’t seen their youngest since him and Padme had decided to split them up to keep their considerable combined power from attracting Sidious or Vader’s attention (although the second was obviously now a moot point seeing as Artoo had apparently told Anakin about the twins).

 

Padme smiles.

 

“You can tell she’s Anakin’s,” she said, “And Luke?”

 

Obi-Wan finds himself smiling in return.

 

“You can tell he’s ours,” he says, “I think I’m finally getting the hang of taking care of him now that I have to do it on my own, though Owen and Beru have been truly helpful.”

 

Padme smiles, but it’s more than a small bit bitter.

 

“Good,” she says, “I just… damn Palpatine, I wish our kids could grow up together, with all of us… but, well, you know that’s impossible.”

 

Yes, he did.

 

“Well,” he says, “I suppose that we should hang up now. The night cycles of a binary system are short, after all, and Luke’s sleep periods are shorter.”

 

Padme smiles.

 

“Okay,” she says, “Just remember to actually sleep.”

 

Obi-Wan rolls his eyes.

 

“Honestly,” he says, “I’m really not that—”

 

“I can name multiple times you passed out from Force Exhaustion just by using it to keep you awake,” Padme, “More if you count the times Anakin or Satine mentioned.”

 

Obi-Wan sighs. He knows when he’s beat.

 

“Very well,” he says, “I promise that I will get enough sleep. Goodbye, Padme.”

 

“Goodbye, love.”

 

When Obi-Wan dreams of Mustafar and Satine that night, though, he isn’t really surprised.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And, with this, another series begins.
> 
> I hate myself.

**Author's Note:**

> My babies. Honestly, though, I don't know why I wrote this. Basically, my mom said things, I wanted to write Obianidala(tine), and I wrote ThIS!!!
> 
> And Falling, to Anakin (because Jedi stupidity, though, not personal stupidity), is a one-way trip. He’d already killed a lot of Jedi by the time he made it to the Council Chambers (and, in total, he only saved 92 Jedi on his way out.)
> 
> Obi-Wan and Padme, meanwhile, still don’t know what to think.
> 
> Find me on Tumblr [@flaim-ita](https://flaim-ita.tumblr.com/)


End file.
